The present invention relates to improved navigation programming that provides information about walking to a final destination in combination with information about driving toward the final destination.
Navigation application programs are available that calculate a route from an origin location to a destination location in a geographic region. These navigation application programs use geographic data included in one or more geographic databases. The geographic data includes information about the road network in the geographic region. The kinds of information may include the positions of the roads in the geographic region, speed limits along portions of roads, address ranges along the road portions, turn restrictions at intersections of roads, direction restrictions such as one-way streets, and so on. Using geographic data that include these kinds of information, a navigation application program identifies a continuous series of road segments that connect between the origin and destination locations and then provides driving instructions for traveling along these identified road segments to reach the destination from the origin.
Although navigation application programs and navigation systems that include these kinds of programs can provide useful information, there continues to be room for additional advancements. For example, although navigation programs may calculate a route for an end user to drive to a desired destination and provide the end user with driving instructions to get to the destination, the end user may not necessarily be able to park at the destination location. The destination location may not provide parking or all the parking spaces at the destination location may already be occupied. Accordingly, there exists a need in navigation systems and/or navigation application programs to assist end users in locating and evaluating parking places at, or near to, the destinations to which the navigation systems or application programs direct the end users. There exists an additional need to take combinations of travel by driving and travel by walking into account when calculating a route to a destination with a navigation system or program. In addition, once a navigation system or program guides the end user to a parking place, the end user may require assistance to reach the desired destination. Accordingly, there exists a further need to assist end users of navigation systems and navigation programs to reach desired destinations after parking their vehicles.
To address these and other objectives, the present invention comprises a system and method that provide an end user of a navigation program with information about walking to a desired destination in combination with information about driving to or close to the desired destination. In addition to the calculation of a route for driving to the desired destination, the navigation program uses data in a geographic database to calculate one or more walking routes to reach the desired destination by walking from locations within a walking threshold around the desired destination. In calculating these one or more walking routes, the navigation program uses the data in the geographic database to assess the suitability of roads around the desired destination for pedestrian travel. In calculating these one or more-walking routes, the navigation program can also include road segments in the one or more walking routes without regard for travel restrictions that only apply to vehicular traffic. Additionally, if the navigation program is installed in a vehicle, the navigation program may indicate the walking distance to the desired destination along one of the calculated walking routes as the vehicle approaches the desired destination. In a further aspect of the inventive subject matter, the navigation program may provide the end user with walking directions to walk to the desired destination along the calculated walking route upon which the vehicle is parked.